The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)

Glenn Ford is cowpoke Gil Kyle, who doesn’t give a hoot about politics, but finds himself neck-deep in Civil War espionage thanks to a pretty redhead named Candace Bronson (Rhonda Fleming).

Kyle flips a coin three times in a saloon and suddenly discovers the pretty saloon girl is quite taken with him.

What he doesn’t know is that flipping a coin three times is a prearranged way for Confederate sympathizers to recognize one another.

Candace realizes her mistake when Kyle can’t solve the riddle: How many Mondays are in a Thursday?

Then she flees when the man who can solve it winds up with a knife in his back.

Kyle’s hot on her heels, because now he has to clear himself of murder.

And hot on Kyle’s heels is Dunn Jeffers, who passes himself off as a cattle buyer, then as a fellow Southerner.

In reality, he’s an undercover agent for the Union.

And he knows what Candace won’t believe — that the man she’s trying to help, Col. Lamartine, is more interested in getting rich in the name of the Confederacy than in helping the Confederacy win a war.

Review:

Better than average Western starring Fleming as a young woman helping the Confederate war effort the only way she knows how after losing her father an Antietam and having a brother captured by the Union.

Ford is the amiable cowpoke who just wants to enjoy a night celebrating with her, but instead finds himself following her and a trail of dead bodies instead.

The film might work better if he was a little more worked up over that situation. Instead, after finding a second body, he declares that he still intends to enjoy breakfast.

Alan Reed plays the flamboyant Col. Lamartine. He would later become the voice of TV’s Fred Flintstone.

Ray Teal and Douglas Spencer are the mercenaries trying to cash in on the war by trailing Candace too in order to find out the location of the Southern guerillas fighting under Lamartine.

Directed by:
Leslie Felton

Cast:
Glenn Ford … Gil Kyle
Edmond O’Brien … Dunn Jeffers
Rhonda Fleming … Candace Bronson
Alan Reed … Col. Lamartine
Morris Ankrum … Sheriff
Edith Evanson … Mrs. Barrett
Perry Ivins … Mr. Barrett
Janine Perreau … Mary Barrett
Douglas Spencer … Perry
Ray Teal … Brock
Ralph Byrd … Capt. Andrews
King Donovan … Munroe
Tom Moore … Gus

Runtime: 82 min.

Memorable lines:

Candace Bronson: “We seem to have run out of conversation.”
Gil Kyle: “I don’t know. Maybe we’re getting down to what really counts.”
Candace: “Like how many Mondays in a Thursday, for instance?”
Gil: “Like, what?”
Candace: “It’s a riddle. Figure it out.”
Gil: “How many Mondays in a Thursday? There’s an answer to it?”
Candace: “I just made it up.”

Gil Kyle, after refusing to drink to the Union: “I buy my own whiskey and drink to what I want and who I want and no bunch of saloon soldiers are gonna tell me different.”

Jeffers, informing Kyle of the posse on his trail: “You’re going to make the war look like a border incident.”

Jeffers, as Candace flees again: “You’re having bad luck with that girl. With bodies too. How did this one die?”

Col. Lamartine: “There are 11 Mondays in a Thursday, one for each state in the Confederacy.”
Gil Kyle: “Well, I’m glad we finally got that answered.”

Perry Evans as Mr. Barrett and Edith Evanson as Mrs. Barrett in The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)

Glenn Ford as Dunn Jeffers, making friends with young Mary Barrett (Janine Perreau) in The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)

Morris Ankrum as the sheriff with Edmund O’Brien as Dunn Jeffers when a body is found in The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)

Rhonda Fleming as Candace Bronson, dragging Gil Kyle (Glenn Ford) into Civil War intrigue in The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951)